Scripta minora [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION" Well, Xenophon, I had been told that you are an Athenian; and that was all I knew about you : but now I praise you for your words and deeds, and I should wish as many as possible to be like you. That would be good for everybody."Cheirisophus the Lacedaemonian, in Anabasis, ni. i. 45.Various modern writers have challenged the ascription to Xenophon of every one of the works included in this volume. The Agesilaus and the Ways and Means have suffered much from the onslaughts of the critics, the Agesilaus on account of its style, the Ways and Means for its subject matter It must suffice here to say that no case has been made out against any one of them, with the exception of (a) the Hunting; (and, even in this case, it is impossible to state with confidence that the main portion of the treatise was not written by Xenophon)^; and (b) The Constitution of the Athenians. This work is manifestly spurious, very interesting though it is.Undoubtedly there is something unusual about the miscellany, when regarded as the product of one author. Most authors write only in one manner; and when we have read some of their works, we easily recognise their hand in the rest. With Xenophon it is not so; for there is an obvious diiFerence of manner in different parts of the* See below, vn (p. xxxvi).vii